I just recently turned 20 and it was a turning point of my life. I am no longer a teenager, and now I am a young adult. In a matter of years, I will be graduating college and finally starting a career for myself. Hopefully along the way I will encounter great magical people and also the ones who are in my lives right now will be there for that amazing journey as well. Growing up is scary, but it is rewarding as well. What is getting me through all of this is the amazing Amy Poehler. She is truly amazing and I look up to her. I see her as someone who made her life filled with amazing opportunities and just like wine, it gets better throughout the years. One of my favorite books comes from her, “Yes Please”, is a book I recommend everyone to read if you want a good laugh and also feel better about yourself as your life continues the wonderful journey that it brings. So here are five quotes that really stood out in her autobiography that I take to heart…there were so many to choose from ha ha.
“I believe great people do things before they are ready”
This applies a lot to me especially with being a teacher/director/creator/ a lot of careers I want do in my life. When you start out in something that you love, there are chances where you may not be the best and that is completely fine. Take the skills that you already have and use them the best you can and learn from those who have been in your shoes before. With education, look at teachers who have been teaching for 10 years, 20 and more. They might have knowledge that you can use in your classroom. I know for me, I am actively involved with the community theatre in my town, and I am always inspired and awe from the people who are talented in the things I want to pursue in. Watching them makes the dream that I want much more satisfying once it becomes a reality. Unfortunately, I have to wait, and this quote makes the wait worth it. When you are new, things may not go the best, but they will get better and your greatness will shine when that time comes. This quote is just part of what I love about in her book. Before she gets to that quote Amy Poehler brings up opportunities. Don’t say no even if it means getting out of your comfort zone. Say yes and see where they will bring you. They might even help you get out of that comfort zone and instead of saying could of, should of, would of you will be saying "I am so glad I said yes." With everything I just said leads to this next quote which is my all-time favorite from her.
“Watching great people do what you love is a good way to start learning how to do it yourself”
This quote ties in with the previous one, but I just want to just preach about this so you can absorb its amazing wordly powers. Instead of competing against people who are good like you, learn from them. Take what they have and what you have and make something unique out of it. It is like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. A peanut butter sandwich is good and so is a jelly sandwich, but put them together and oh my God, my taste buds are in heaven. Plus, also when you finally get to where you want in life you have a great amount of people to thank for which is always cool.
“Every few years one needs to shake one’s life through a sieve, like a miner in the Yukon. The gold nuggets remain”
For someone who wants everyone to be my friend, this is true, especially when college starts. Let’s be real, saying oh we will keep in touch after high school is major bull unless they go to the same college as you. I do admit there are a few people I still keep in touch and I love them to death and then there are some that I would love to, but time never works in our favor. It is ok to say goodbye to those who were your friends back then, but really aren’t anymore now. Time changes, people change, and if they actually cared for you then they would put the effort in it and same goes to you. My best friends Sabrina and Olivia (get those internet shout outs) are two truly amazing people and we are going on almost a year strong in friendship. Will we be friends in the next five years? I sure hope so because those two are the giant gold nuggets in my life that if I ever lose a tooth and want my fake one to be golden, I will sure use them... There are plenty of other gold nuggets still in my life that are much smaller, but I have learned to be ok with what I have and just appreciate them and you should as well. So go ahead and delete those negative people off your contact list. I could cut out like 2/3 of my Facebook friends list, but I do like looking at people’s lives and secretly judge them (we all do so hush.) Overall doing that is really refreshing and great clean start to a better life, but please keep the person who puts the cute cat videos on their timeline. Even if they are scum, cat videos are amazing.
“Good for her! Not for me. That is the motto women should constantly repeat over and over again”
Even though this quote talks about women, I believe it can be equal with men (yay equality!) There have been times where I got jealous over people doing well for something I know for sure I would suck at. "Oh you got a fancy internship being an accountant… I hate you! Even though I don’t know what 2+2 is. I should have said, good for them, now let me go back to watching Netflix and procrastinate my life." Don’t care what other people do especially if it never involves you. There is this person I am friends with on Facebook who posts every single thing they do like I have a front row seat in their diary. Numerous times I am like "really?", but I have to remember, good for them, not for me because I know when I do my bragging on something I did good, I would want someone to do that for me instead of saying "oh Keith no one gives a rat’s ass about what you are doing." If anyone has thought about that on me, let me know so we can have a nice conversation that won’t have any good Christian worthy words. Just worry about you. This is the time you can be selfish because everyone feels good doing it, which leads to my last quote that would make anyone’s confidence soar real high.
“Ignore what other people think. Most people aren’t even paying attention to you”.
This is something that has been said by almost everyone, but Amy Poehler pours some truth tea onto it. The people who are paying attention to you are the people who do care about you. Numerous times in my life I wanted to do things, but because of how I felt what others would think about it, I decided to opted out of it and I regretted it… even the time when I signed up for my school’s male beauty pageant that got canceled because of low interest (I dodged that bullet.) Which this leads into another quote from Amy of “Don’t think. Just do” (yes I lied, there were supposed to be five quotes, but there were so many good to choose from.) Just do what you want and worry about the consequences later. I’m not saying rob a bank because we all know you are going to prison, but go hang out with friends instead of do homework. You can cram that stuff in 20 minutes before class. Just do it, don’t think about anything, have fun, and when you get home let reality come back to you… just make sure you don’t cry a lot.
I could go on and on about more amazing Amy quotes, but sadly I have to end this. These quotes have helped me be a better person. Yes, I still sometimes, don’t follow them, but I am learning and that is the fun about it. Yes some of these things are things you probably heard before, but hearing (well, reading) them from someone you adore and puts her own cute creative spin on it, makes them much enjoyable.
